Holy shit, John! After all the bullshit, all the wavering, and all the fucking garbage about running an "honorable" campaign, I expected you to put the final nail in your political coffin and give me every reason to let Barack Obama become president, turn the country sharply to the left and straight into the crapper, and hope that the GOP would get it closer to right in four years. But you surprised me. You let Obama and the Democrats have their show, then came to the great state of Ohio with Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, a historic pick for the GOP that covers everything I don't like about you. Now this doesn't mean I'm jumping on the Straight Talk Express and voting for your dumb ass. But you just made it a whole lot more possible. Now let's see if you can get it right in Minneapolis.So with this pick, we will have a historic election either way. I'm going to have to research her more, but what I've seen and heard so far is accurate, I wish she was on the top of the ticket and McCain was staying in the Senate. But I am happier with the ticket with her on it. Now I have to go and see the first appearance of the McCain-Palin ticket.
(moderation note - this post will not be subject to moderation rules)
24 comments:
I love this pick. She just threw a wrench the size of Alaska in obama's mission
I didn't think he would be this smart but he literally just won over most of the conservative base with this pick. I finally can say that I will vote for him and I couldn't say that until today. I'm shocked and ecstatic about this pick.
Patrick, how is Gov. Palin qualified to be President? Isn't she a heartbeat away from the presidency?
While conservatives may not like Hillary, it is hard to argue that Palin is more qualified than Clinton.
The fact that she is in the number two position should not matter. That person also has to be ready to step into the Oval office on day one.
Do conservatives really believe that Sarah Palin is qualified, today, to be President?
But I will say this. Her candidacy has the blogosphere talking about McCain rather than Obama. A great political move.
Hey, when did you put in comment moderation?
I guess I missed that while I was on the road.
Palin...are you f'in kidding me? When McCain should be making amends with the conservative base and courting them, he instead (in his "Maverick" style) picks another flippin independent maverick.
His entire campaign strategy has predicated itself on the "independent"/ "moderate" / etc. voter.
I say let the man win on that if he thinks he can. He won't be getting any support from this voter.
Then of course in all fairness to McCain, I wouldn't have voted for him had he picked Goldwater as his VP. It's for the simple fact it would have led to the conservative succumbing to moderation at every turn.
Even still...his picking Palin as VP solidified my belief that John McCain has no intentions of working towards the conservative cause. He is instead willing to sacrifice it for the sake of political expediency.
Great, a guy who is 72 years old and has had 3 bouts of cancer is going to but a soccer mom with no experience one step from the most important job in the world.
And speaking of judgement, what mother gives birth to a downs syndrome child and then 5 months later decides to become the VP of the United States and possibly move her family 4000 miles away. That's just plain irresponsible.
Now, I get it that you like it that she thinks men should be able to tell a woman what to do with her body, and who knows, maybe that's why she had the retarded child to begin with, and I know you like her big oil connections and that she wants 8 year olds to own hand grenades and machine guns but other than that, what does she bring to the table other than giving McCain a reason to renew his viagra prescription?
"...with no experience..."
Why are people so fixated on this "experience" bullshit?
Look at Washington now for Christ sake. It saturated with "experience" and look at the total and complete clusterfuck these "experienced" asshats have subjected us to.
What I care about are ideas. I've got plenty of "experienced" co-workers with years of company loyalty who couldn't figure out how to fill a damn stapler when it runs empty.
Sorry, Patrick.
Palin is NOT historic.
The Democrats did this 28 years ago!!!!
The Democrats chose a woman on the ticket a VP over a generation ago!
The Democrats put an Afro-American on the ticket as a presidential candidate. FIRST TIME.
And they ran a woman as a presidential candidate. FIRST TIME.
Maybe the Republicans will catch up in another generation.
I'm not impressed with this hockey mom.
She personally acknowledged she doesn't know much about Iraq.
The Republicans are hilariously hypocritical! Hilariously!
John McCain, BTW, had to read her name from his notes!
This is too funny. McCain is so desperate for the PUMAs!
I was leaving work tonight and a man did an absolute double take on me and said I look JUST LIKE her.
I hasted to reassure him I was not a Republican.
He was deluded. It's just the bangs and glasses combination.
I'm so f'n tired.
Patrick called her as historic for the GOP because sbe is the first women nomunee for the GOP, not the first woman ever.
Obob said...
I love this pick. She just threw a wrench the size of Alaska in obama's mission
I'd like to have you or anyone else explain why Gov. Palin is qualfied to step into the presidency, and, as the conservatives have been howling over the past 18 monts, Sen. Obama is not. Please outline her qualifications vs. Obama's.
And please don't insult our intelligence with the disengenuous examples of her 18 months as Gov. or as head of Alaska National Guard, or as a FOX news idiot proclaimed for her foreign policy bona fides, "...she's from Alaska, and that right next to Russia!"
I want to know in concrete terms how John McCain can say this is the person he was thinking of when, in March, he said of his deliberations for a VP (I'll have to paraphrase) that he will chose someone ready to step in and lead the country.
IMHO, John McCain is not fit to be president. He's gambling with the security of this country in order to get the PUMA vote. I personally think he's jumped the shark on this choice.
Gov. Palin may be gutsy, and perky, and dedicated to drilling the crap out of Alaska to keep us addicted to oil, and she's dedicated to outlawing abortion, so women in this country can go back to back alleys and coat hangers. Those are her choices, but that does not qualify her to be president.
My first reaction to this choice was that John McCain put himself first--not his country. That undermines the central theme of his candidacy--this reeks of political calculation. (He actually had to read her name as he introduced her!)
John McCain, in choosing her, made Sen. Obama look light years more qualified than he did two days ago.
Thank you for that, John McCain, you took your one good debating point out of play.
This is Matthew Dowd's take (he worked for the Bush Adm.)
"For a candidate known to possess a quick temper and an unpredictable political streak, the decision raises questions about how McCain would lead -- whether his decisions would flow from careful deliberations or gut checks in which short-term considerations or feelings outweigh the long view.
"Americans like risk-takers, but they also want to know that in times of crisis, you're going to be calm," said Matthew Dowd, who was a senior campaign strategist for President Bush but is neutral in the McCain-Obama race.
"Americans don't necessarily want somebody in a time of crisis to be overly emotional," Dowd said. "That's the balance that John McCain's going to have to show the public."
Okay, let me see if I can get a reply in before I wipe it out the third time....
Dave: Experience is not the end-all of becoming president (as Soapster said more bluntly (ususally my job)). It's that combo of ideas, judgment, and experience. Palin is light on experience (not as light as Obama), but what I've heard so far looks good.
As for the moderation, the answer is at the top of the blog. It's temporary.
Soapster: For McYop (hop, hop, hop), this was actually a god pick. There's nothing that's going to get me to leap happily onto the Straight Talk Express (as many of the conservative bloggers have done), but it is a step in the right direction. He's still got a couple of months to get my vote (but probably not my active support).
Oh, and if you don't give a shit about the experience, how about this idea:
PatrickM/Soapster '12!
Just a thought....
Toad: And speaking of judgement, what mother gives birth to a downs syndrome child and then 5 months later decides to become the VP of the United States and possibly move her family 4000 miles away.
Yeah, she was planning on the VP slot when she dropped the baby. I think the feminists would take issue with the idea she can't serve because she has a child. That would effectively disqualify a whole lot of women. Don't we call that the glass ceiling?
I'd quote further, but you only go downhill intellectually from there. I'd suggest laying off the paste.
Shaw: I didn't make a mistake (as Beth and Uspace clarified) and forget Geraldine. Actually, she was commenting on the selection on Fox News (she's one of the 'idiots', you know) either right before or right after Sarah acknowledged the history.
But since you seem to believe that Republicans are, on the whole, racist and sexist, I guess you're going to only see Palin as a tool to oppress women some more. Let the bashing begin, then.
Saty: Someone confused you with a Republican who might be VP?
Well, it's a start. :)
uspace: Welcome. Also, thanks for clarifying why Palin is a great choice.
Also liked the quotes. I may have to quote you one of these days. Or feed you my nuggets of wisdomification.
PatrickM/Soapster '12
Wow, my dream ticket!
Can I be Secretary of State??
Patrick,
You continue to insist that Palin is more experienced than Obama. That is just not true. It is false:
Obama graduated with a B.A. from Columbia in 1983, then worked for a year at the Business International Corporation[10] and then at the New York Public Interest Research Group.
After four years in New York City, Obama moved to Chicago to work as a community organizer for three years from June 1985 to May 1988 as director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Greater Roseland on Chicago's far South Side. During his three years as the DCP's director, its staff grew from 1 to 13 and its annual budget grew from $70,000 to $400,000, with accomplishments including helping set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants' rights organization in Altgeld Gardens.[14] Obama also worked as a consultant and instructor for the Gamaliel Foundation, a community organizing institute. In mid-1988, he traveled for the first time to Europe for three weeks then Kenya for five weeks where he met many of his Kenyan relatives for the first time.
Obama entered Harvard Law School in late 1988 and at the end of his first year was selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review based on his grades and a writing competition. In his second year he was elected president of the Law Review, a full-time volunteer position functioning as editor-in-chief and supervising the law review's staff of 80 editors. Obama's election in February 1990 as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review was widely reported and followed by several long, detailed profiles. He graduated with a Juris Doctor (J.D.) magna cum laude from Harvard in 1991 and returned to Chicago where he had worked as a summer associate at the law firms of Sidley & Austin in 1989 and Hopkins & Sutter in 1990.
Obama directed Illinois Project Vote from April to October 1992, a voter registration drive with a staff of 10 and 700 volunteers that achieved its goal of registering 150,000 of 400,000 unregistered African Americans in the state, leading Crain's Chicago Business to name Obama to its 1993 list of "40 under Forty" powers to be.
Obama taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years, as a Lecturer for four years (1992–1996), and as a Senior Lecturer for eight years (1996–2004).
In 1993 Obama joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a 12-attorney law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development, where he was an associate for three years from 1993 to 1996, then of counsel from 1996 to 2004, with his law license becoming inactive in 2002.
Obama was a founding member of the board of directors of Public Allies in 1992, resigning before his wife, Michelle, became the founding executive director of Public Allies Chicago in early 1993. He served on the board of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago, which in 1985 had been the first foundation to fund Obama's DCP, from 1993–2002, and served on the board of directors of The Joyce Foundation from 1994–2002. Obama served on the board of directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge from 1995–2002, as founding president and chairman of the board of directors from 1995–1999. He also served on the board of directors of the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, and the Lugenia Burns Hope Center.
Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996, succeeding State Senator Alice Palmer as Senator from the 13th District, which then spanned Chicago South Side neighborhoods from Hyde Park-Kenwood south to South Shore and west to Chicago Lawn. After he was elected, Obama gained bipartisan support for legislation reforming ethics and health care laws. He sponsored a law increasing tax credits for low-income workers, negotiated welfare reform, and promoted increased subsidies for childcare. In 2001, as co-chairman of the bipartisan Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, Obama supported Republican Governor Ryan's payday loan regulations and predatory mortgage lending regulations aimed at averting home foreclosures, and in 2003, Obama sponsored and led unanimous, bipartisan passage of legislation to monitor racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of drivers they detained and legislation making Illinois the first state to mandate videotaping of homicide interrogations.
Obama was reelected to the Illinois Senate in 1998, and again in 2002.
In January 2003, Obama became chairman of the Illinois Senate's Health and Human Services Committee when Democrats, after a decade in the minority, regained a majority. During his 2004 general election campaign for U.S. Senate, police representatives credited Obama for his active engagement with police organizations in enacting death penalty reforms. Obama resigned from the Illinois Senate in November 2004 following his election to the US Senate.
Palin's experience:
Palin holds a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism from the University of Idaho, where she also minored in political science. She then briefly worked as a sports reporter for local Anchorage television stations while also working in commercial fishing with her husband.
Palin began her political career in 1992, running for Wasilla (population, 8,000) City Council as a supporter of the controversial new sales tax and with an advertisement advocating "a safer, more progressive Wasilla". She won and served two terms on the council from 1992 to 1996. In 1996, she challenged and defeated incumbent mayor John Stein.
She ran for re-election against Stein in 1999, winning by an even larger margin. Palin was also elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors.
In 2002, Palin made an unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor, coming in second to Loren Leman in a five-way race in the Republican primary.
Running on a clean-government campaign in 2006, Palin upset then-Governor Murkowski in the Republican gubernatorial primary. In August, she declared that education, public safety, and transportation would be three cornerstones of her administration.
If I were to have to pick a female for the role, it would be someone like Sarah Palin. I can rest assured that she won't let the likes of Putin, The Iranian leader, Chavez, Ried, Kennedy, Pelosi, and Hillary (you know she won't go away) keep her from doing what's right for the people.
The contrast with BO and Biden and most slick, phony, corrupt politicians is dazzling-- and inspiring! *This* is change we can believe in! Sarah is twice the man, so to speak, of Obama and Biden rolled together
She has energy, is articulate with clarity of words, and she doesn't need the help of a Teleprompter. This woman is a role model for women on so many fronts, especially the fact that she was pregnant and had a baby recently while serving as governor. Let's see them criticize this.
Palin is the shot in the arm that the country and the party needed. Her speech with McCain yesterday had me clapping in my truck as I listened.
Her message was not about hope and change, or changing hope, or hoping for change to hope. Her message was not about what is wrong with America, or how America has passed you by.
NO, her message was about country, service, and service to country, and WHY the choice to serve should be made. Very Positive, uplifting and inspiring.
We have known for a long time that there are problems in Washington, Palin looks like, and sounds like, someone who will fight the good fight and do what is best for the people of this country.
Having said that, I am very excited about the ticket now. Dobson's on board now and many others whose judgement I respect. My check will be in the mail in the morning..
Thank You John McCain.
Beth: Sounds good to me.
Shaw: Okay, Obama has been in the job market a couple of years longer than Palin. He is older after all.
Let me clarify: Palin has more experience at governing and managing than Obama. Come to think of it, so do I.
Stones: Welcome to the fun. I get more reassured as I hear more conservatives hopping on the Straight Talk Express. But since I left the GOP, I'm going to still reserve judgment. But you and all the others, as well as Shaw's protestations, convince me that the McCain camp is going in the right direction. For once.
Let me clarify: Palin has more experience at governing and managing than Obama. Come to think of it, so do I.
The Alaska legislature is in session 90 days out of the entire year, and it has 60 legislators in its entirety.
I have more than that at my Thanksgiving table. LOL!
This is John McCain's Harriet Miers moment.
The Alaska legislature is in session 90 days out of the entire year, and it has 60 legislators in its entirety.
Great. What does that have to do with the Governor?
Great. What does that have to do with the Governor?
She presides over a state that has fewer people in its legislature than shows up for my Thanksgiving dinner! LOL!
And her educational bona fides are pallid compared with Obama's. (He taught Constitutional law, remember?)
But then Obama was never a runner up to a beauty queen contest. LOL!
Really. The proverbial crap has hit the fan. Only the base, and the base only thinks this is a great choice.
And again, I thank McCain for his choice. He's made Obama look like a wise old statesman.
Shaw: It was a small state, but she ran it. That's experience that McCain, Obama, and Biden don't have (as 2 of them have been in the senate for decades, and the third has been campaigning for president longer than he's been a senator.
[Obama] taught Constitutional law, remember?
Yet, he seems to have missed the concept of limited government. To be fair, the GOP and John McCain haven't done that great either (McCain-Feingold & the 1st amendment). But I have my pocket Constitution somewhere around here (I need to clean my room. Badly) and I can read it just as well. It was not designed to be opaque to any person with a decent education. That includes every candidate in this race, even the third party ones.
Our government was not designed to be run exclusively by lawyers. The reason for this is that lawyers like to interpret the law to the favor of whatever case they're currently fighting. But since government attracts lawyers like an ass-plague, I tend to have a little distrust of all lawyers and their judgment concerning the Constitution.
I tend to have a little distrust of all lawyers and their judgment concerning the Constitution.
And I tend to have distrust of a woman who, on record, said she doesn't know what the vice president does. It's not cute or perky.
Obama has been in the news for 18 months, every inch of his life has been minutely examined. No one knows anything about Palin.
Don't worry about Palin being unknown. That will change really, really fast.
Plus, I had a great idea for Gov Palin for my GOP convention schedule. I'm sure you'll approve. Heh, heh, heh.
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